The Basement
by wolfhunter777
Summary: The basement is the scariest part of the castle.


The noise from the radio faded away into the silent background as you made your way down the stony stairs. Soon, the silence had replaced everything but the noise of your breathing and echoing footsteps.

The coldness of the aging stone walls crept through your skin as you placed your hand against it, slowly numbing your limb as you took a step forward.

The temptation of turning back was great but you knew you could not. At least not yet. Not until you obtain what you needed down here. And so, you braved yet another step down.

The stale air hit your nose when you reached the bottom. The dust stirred as you moved. You wondered when was the last time anyone had come down here. You wondered if the last person who did come down here managed to leave.

The destination is bleak and dark. Not dark enough to blind you but enough to paint the details in your vicinity black. As far as you know, it had always been that way. The shadows could be hiding something in the corners. You wished that you were armed, if only so you could fend off any would-be attackers down here.

You placed a hand on a dust-coated box as you took a step forward and the tips of your fingers came away grey. You wondered morbidly if the dust were the ashes of dead comrades instead. You wiped your dust covered hand against your pants in an attempt to clean it but all you have succeeded was to leave a grey stain on your pristine clean pants. You swore and promised to yourself that you would wash your clothes later, maybe burn it with fire instead. No one could say if the dust ends up turning sentient and eating you in your sleep. Best not leave it up to chance after all.

Another step forward and you see your objective in sight. You heaved a sigh of relief at that, you were worried that the endeavour might have ended up in vain. However, that relief soon turned to frustration when you realised that there is a large stack of wooden crates blocking your path to your objective. Judging from the lack of thick dust coating, you summarized that the boxes were placed here recently.

You had two choices: move the boxes or go over them. You do not know what the boxes contain and you are afraid to know. Before you could decide however, something clattered on your right. You suck in a breath and turned to face the source of the sound but there was nothing there. Nothing that you could make out in the darkness anyway.

The temptation to retreat grew stronger but you have yet to obtain what you came for. Your decision made, you crept towards the crates while your eyes scanned the surroundings for an ambush. You placed a palm on top of the box, your eyes taking a quick scan of your surroundings before you heaved yourself onto the crates. The wooden crates rattled beneath you as you climbed on top of it. When your whole body has left the floor and is now completely on top of the box, you look around again to ensure that there is no one around to take you down in your vulnerable state. You wished yet again, that you could have been armed for this mission.

You moved your legs to the other side of the boxes, angling the soles of your feet parallel to the ground. As you were about to throw yourself off the boxes, you heard a loud sudden noise of your name being called. You almost screamed, but you managed to stifle the noise. You heard your name being called again, you recognised the person. Louis is calling for you. You realised that you had taken too long. You wanted to answer back, to reassure him that you were fine (even though you are not), but you did not want to alert any other living creatures down here who might want a taste of revenant's flesh.

You decided to hasten up your mission. The objective is in sight, you could grab it quickly and get out. Decision made, you threw yourself off the wooden boxes. However, before you could land on your feet, something had grabbed hold of your pants legs. Time slowed as you found yourself falling forward, your mouth opened as you screamed and your hands thrown up in an attempt to cushion your fall. A loud rip echoed in your ears followed by a loud thud as you hit the ground.

You stayed on the dusty stone floor for a moment, blinking as you remove your hands from your face as there was no longer a need to protect it. You groan as your newly formed bruises from the tumble ached to make themself known. You breathed in the air and coughed. The dust had scattered into the air in your fall and you had just devoured a lungful of them. Slowly, you pushed yourself off the ground. As you stood up, you glanced down at your clothes. You noticed a large ugly tear in one of your pants legs and dust coating every nook and cranny of your clothes. You groaned, in frustration this time. Not only do you have to wash all your clothes (again) but you have to fix up the damage now.

In your distraction, you failed to notice a hand coming down to your shoulder until it made contact. You screamed loudly again as you lurched away from the offending limb. You crashed into a metal shelf on the left, causing the items on it to fall on top of you. The shelf rattled and swayed before falling forward and on top of you, taking you down. Objects fell to the ground around and on you, creating a crescendo of crashes. You covered your head with your hands to protect it, only removing your protection once the echoes had finally died down. You breathed in the silence in the room as your heart thundered in your chest.

"Are you okay?"

A voice filled with concern with a tinge of amusement.

You turn your head to look up, eyes making contact with Louis.

"I can explain," you say as you start thinking up excuses for this incident.

"I'm sure you can," Louis said, a humored smile forming on his face as he moved a wooden crate aside. He walked towards you and placed his palms against the fallen metal shelf. With a single heave, he pushed the empty shelf off you and returned it to where it was before it fell.

"This is your fault you know," you said to him. You rolled over onto your back and sat up but made no further attempts to get up.

Louis laughed softly as he offered his hand to you. "How so?" He asked as you reached out for his hand.

"You let me read that horror novel! Why did you let me read it!?"

Louis simply laughed harder as he pulled you off the ground.

"Stop laughing! I'm never reading anything ever again!"

"Then I'm sure that you will not miss this comic that you came down here for," Louis said as he held out the aforementioned object in his hand.

When had he grabbed it? You had failed to notice when he did it.

"Wha-hey! No! Hand it over!" You cried out as you tried to grab the book, only to miss as Louis moved the object out of your reach. You swore as you dived for the book again, only to slip over one of the many fallen objects on the ground and fall. You groan in pain while Louis started laughing again.

You vehemently swore that you will never take a single step into the basement ever again.


End file.
